Economic Update: A Critique of Government Spending

[EU S14 E16] A Critique of Government Spending
This week’s Economic Update Professor Richard Wolff devotes this program devoted to how to understand government spending. How it shapes the larger society. We will focus on two questions 1) What is the government spending on? and 2) How is that money going to be used, and who benefits? If government spending only flows to capitalist corporations, they will use it to reproduce capitalism including its inequalities and injustices. This is a crucial impact of government spending but rarely examined. The alternative - spending on worker coops - is explained and explored as a better alternative.
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[@Deitricklaverne]

These elites in tandem with the corrupt government will take this country to it's knees like the fall of Rome, My sympathy goes to anyone approaching retirement, you may have reasonable concerns over your pension and if it'll stretch to cover the rising cost of living, bad regulatory policies, bad energy and insane fiscal policies.

[@Deitricklaverne]

No doubt being financially free and not having to worry much about their expenditures cannot be overemphasized, making smart plans and setting up diversified investment portfolios is quite essential.

[@Churchillhump2268]

My condolences to anyone retiring in this crisis, 30 years nonstop just for a crooked system to take all you worked for.

[@wehrine]

Good point.. the economy has been crazy lately, a few surprises here and there.. with all the global happenings taking place I think it’s safe to say that a severe global recession is looming..

[@wehrine]

from a personal angle I'm aware continuing to invest in periods of higher volatility is a Smart way to build wealth.

[@V.stones]

Yeah Most people miss it but the secret to living and retiring comfortably is finding a way to make returns while your money works for you..

[@_Jaybefaunt]

This was a deeply necessary question that we all must ask ourselves. Many of us question HOW government spending happens when it comes to defense, but not as many ask how it's spent domestically. Just spending on infrastructure doesn't give us the full picture. I'm glad I was able to react to this on my channel. Thank you so much for this, Professor Wolff.

[@richardprice5978]

the parts id like to here/knowledge more on is daily interruption's that happens like traffic-jam or sales/purchasing-departments missing the targets etc, 🤔1955~ unions ( highest level of memberships in database-uk or USA 🇺🇸 ) got closer to how the models would in theory be but Richard-W hasn't filled in the blanks/details entirely enough for me to back it fully 99%, as votes/debating ( more the 3 to 9~ at a time and or room and can be vary messy, my 21yo-job on shift had 20+ men on maintenance shift alone, 200-300-payrolls for plant manufacturing, with more than one warehouse and plant etc ) can take time to get and or become clumsy etc my uncle sweet beet Idaho's/og 🇺🇸 farmers tried being in a co-op but 1990's version operation was more like a stock-market/LLC with a ceo and beholded not to my uncle but to those outside and CEO, and didn't have any real say in anything let alone daily choice's in general UBI and co-op's and wolfs ideas is on to something , intriguing to see the 🇬🇧 retirement buy-in/ownership for newer members and loan-planning to pay off % of those wanting retirement or out of business/owning, sounds like how-$$ family farmers work after the old man retirement ( and or divided's are shared, kinda like the idea of 1950's ( id change it so it's not completely reliant on monogamous-marriage and no-kid's! aka polyamory/queer and kids/1st-airs ( upto 21yo and or capable of independentcy/ie-working ) have-claim for medical and death/widowed and taxes etc ) pentchionds/benefit's-worked plus having SS as a backup plan if the operation failed/bankruptcy etc ) or pass-on etc, might work 🤔 👍 for transition and or different model/style, adding positions/new-worker's is just adding more shares to the co-op/manufacturing-plant for the grant/buy-in progress lds/flds and lutherans and Mennonite's/Amish ( Jewish? 🤔 , can't say as i wasn't a membership but culture wise some of my pre-1880's~ ancestor were 🇬🇧 branches ) churches have had something similar to this but got harassed by federal government enforcement and members that sued and left there faithful aka turned atheist

[@spanky7277]

Thank you Professor Wolff. I'm learning the economics for the Poor and Middle class and proud to be part of it .

[@jibjabby9964]

Working class is my preferred title because we both can be pushed to homelessness if we become unemployed, unlike the capitalists

[@anthonysugarhouse]

One of your best presentations. Keep talking about the solution and less about the problems. Thank you Anthony

[@SantillanCarlos]

Agreed

[@a.randomjack6661]

The problem is the Corporatocracy Empire has all the might of the empire from military to communications. The Corporatocracy Empire is all of that, they are it! Include fossil fuels and a few other Bigs, like tech and ag. I think the problem is much worse than we believe, way much. Looks lke it has a name... Pathocracy

[@quicksilver356]

His name is Richard, not Anthony.

[@JN-RG]

@@quicksilver356 the guy was signing off the message with his own name like at the end of an email - thank you, Anthony. But he forgot the comma

[@JN-RG]

@@quicksilver356 crazy how something like leaving out a comma completely changes the meaning lol

[@cheri238]

Thank you, Professor Richard Wolff. If anyone has listened to you or read your books, this is a great example of what could be done, as the example of Mandarin, Spain did in the 50s. We have to make our vote count by not supporting neither the Republicans or Democrats whose ties are to the capitalist and Aipec in 2024. I admired Jeremy Corbyn 2015-2020 for his efforts in British Parliament, but unfortunately, the elites squashed his ideas with deceit and lies.

[@nholth]

I like this idea of having the government require a percentage of spending to be through worker co-op as a way to support these types of businesses. It seems like a similar approach to how the government already directs its spending when it requires a percentage of road and bridge contract work be done through Disadvantage Business Enterprises (DBE).

[@sehuroka]

Our country needs genine political leaders with your humanitarian values and set of mind. Thanks for the information and its dissemination Mr. Wolff.

[@moemimouni679]

THANK-U - PROFESSOR R .WOLF 4 ALWAYS WIDING MY HORIZONS, WITH EACH PROGRAM.✊

[@MegaPapa8888]

good for the society. Thanks Prof.

[@treefrog3349]

The complacency with which so much of America accepts their externally-imposed servitude disturbs me greatly. Orwell looms in the forefront of my thoughts, while I selfishly and ironically embrace my old age. My heart bleeds for the young people of today.

[@MrDXRamirez]

The financial sector is in disarray,---the rescue packages and stimulus bills, are one two punches in the gut for working people. Budget gaps and layoffs caused by the bond market hit companies invested in the bond market and bond sellers finance city-state projects. The bondholders get paid their interest-profit after the debt is or not paid is the theory. In practice, the theory puts the working middle classes on the hook to cover the losses. Cuts in pay, loss of pensions, for remaining employees after 400 to 600 workers are laid off. Conditions are made desirable for employers to make longer working hours with new innovations. Rescue packages are not aimed at restructuring debt or mortgages. This would be one difference a Labor Party would make against how Republicans and Democrats use ‘rescue packages’ as a fund to withdraw money by the recipient of the package. The productive use of rescue packages depends on whose interest it is used for. Get people to understand these dynamics and complacency will start to become a social movement of non-conformity with the existing state of things...and rightfully so.

[@jasoncuculo7035]

Not just the young. Older people fall below the poverty line for many unforeseeable reasons that are not the fault of the poor. Cherry picking scriptures to claim moral superiority over the poor denies Job 20, and the rest of the Bible.

[@paramanadmahabir196]

This is a very frank talk: one scenario : one contraactor break a patch,one remake it,one rebreak the patch,oneinstalls electric wires,one covers the patch one redug the patch to fix pluming and so the patch will never complete ever and ever.

[@nancyhirsch7768]

Take heart Prof. Wolff. They are teaching sharing economy (i.e. the Mondragon model) over at University of Illinois at Chicago. :-) While it may not show up alongside conventional economics, it does within urban planning and policy.

[@edwardhaughney9665]

Wonderful, as usual, presentation. The gods have sent you.

[@wcole1385]

Thanks for the content and delivery!

[@geraldmantel4955]

We Demand Satisfaction, though we'll never get it until we accomplish Regime Change.

[@jerometekien2927]

A very good point. The question is how do we get the government to do that?❤

[@SantillanCarlos]

Vote all of them out. Call in Dr. West

[@micnorton9487]

​​@@SantillanCarlosCornel West is the ONLY candidate willing to even give socialism a shot, unfortunately with the rest of the standing government it's going to be EXTREMELY difficult.... In reality this government is working exactly like it should, a government invented by genocidal slaveholders is going to be a government continuously replicating its own brand of cutthroat administrators... And since the government is only the public relations front for the corporation, in effect changing the government would do nothing at all without changing the structure of the corporation....

[@MatewanMassacre]

We don't. This government is a bourgeois government, which exclusively represents the interests of the bourgeois class. Unless we remove these people, and their institutions, from power, and build a new country, our children will have no future ... none at all.

[@ianchu8232]

By importing the Soviet system.

[@ProleDaddy]

I'd wager only an armed uprising of the working class would get us there, even if I wish that were not so.

[@jl8942]

Whenever you hear a politician bragging about "public/private partnerships", be very skeptical.

[@joshanderson7358]

Thanks for sharing Richard.👏🌹💯

[@vooyas.mp4]

Thank you, Professor, for sharing this knowledge so openly, in an undestandable way and for free, for all to watch and learn. I admire your patience, because when I'm trying to get these points to my friends my blood starts to boil haha I will most definitely be back next week!

[@avtarsingh8948]

As usual, brilliant. Thank you.

[@Azazin187]

Good video with valuable information. More people need to see this.

[@MrCortar]

The vacuum analogy was simple but it kinda blew my mind. Another great episode 👏

[@andrzejfrancikiewicz9964]

Thank you Professor Wolf

[@abeismain]

Very interesting topic

[@Marxist2]

This is a great issue for us to ask, especially as our govt is giving/passing a 95 billion $ bill for the military industry.

[@erwinphillips4412]

Thanks!

[@ernstthalmann4306]

Love the thumbnail lmao 🤣 Dr wolff has HAD IT

[@WarrenPeaceOG]

Bookmarking and recommending🙌

[@rezakarampour6286]

' How Much of American's Tax Money Funds War?. / the take . '

[@noyb649]

$1.3 trillion last year but more importantly it is the largest labor sector in the US economy (not all in the US but paid).

[@spanky7277]

BINGO , So we have to create war to make money for who ?

[@KendrickBullard-lx5nl]

200 % because it's a 5 year debt plan to keep us in debt

[@Support_Ad_Blocker]

@@noyb649 Zero return to the community

[@noyb649]

@@Support_Ad_Blocker, exactly! War is economic destruction. We're not building houses or making toilet paper. We have our best and brightest working on better ways to kill people-- what a waste.

[@TwiztedHumor]

He's right! The government should not do business with the corporations, they should be giving the contracts to coops as much as possible.

[@howardbullows3717]

Fantastic episode. One of my favorites you’ve made

[@williamwoods2624]

Thank you for the important work you do. It’s very much valued and appreciated.

[@howardfox6660]

Thank you. The unions have always been my compaction. As a non union trade worker ,we were never given the opportunity to prepare for government jobs. Why.? You have shown my 50 years of business. But remember independents always can do it with less money.

[@anneclarke1598]

learnt loads thanks

[@kristonpohlman2685]

Hell yea Richard, you always are kicking out the Jams!!!

[@sean32038]

thank you. this video was wonderful and i would like to keep hearing about such solutions to capitalism in your videos.

[@jessehamilton4223]

I thought professor wolf was a big government type so saw this title and had to click

[@user-kv7bs7ug8u]

This topic is very insightful. Our focus has been off. People are a resource like worker co -ops. Thank you.

[@accordionthief]

More important than how, Professor, is WHERE. If you know where, the how and the why and the who will all fit into place

[@deddalus01]

Thanks

[@clive-live]

ACTIVITIES ~ Reproduction and Transformation ~> RELATIONSHIPS: State, Class, Family Great introduction to the cooperative movement ~ wow👌 Clive Burgess

[@purdysanchez]

There's a company in DC who's basically a middleman that does nothing but take a markup in cost. So, government agencies have to buy certain IT products from their catalog even though they don't make any of the products.

[@allshour436]

This talk ends where the bidding processes between co ops and capitalist begins

[@GreetingsEarth]

Please talk about Janet Yellen's recent trip to China.

[@reginaerekson9139]

4:43 Federal employees- general contractors and their pool of amazing talent - making American and anywhere that needs a hand as part of peace building and collaboration. Ps. Your subtitles mess up Charlie’s email address

[@denisross2923]

One of the problems with obtaining government contracts is snowing a proven ability to fulfil the contract. That tends to work against new entrants and small firms while favouring large firms

[@patricialongo5870]

In my family we were forced to say that voters would vote themselves all the money and therefore we're not a democracy.

[@yttean98]

I had asked for an interview a few times sometimes ago, like 2 yrs ago nothing forthcoming, i.e. an interviewing with Wolfang Streeck. I saw many of his interview eslewhere, do you have anything against him?

[@Pinochou-jo4yr]

Do a video on Taxation and Freeloaders.

[@fabianadefreitas2365]

Ou seja, quem elege os políticos são as grandes corporações. Então eu pergunto a todos: Democracia é isso?

[@thalgott3]

Landscape Architects in my area call this a buff wash finish.

[@nadiawheeler4772]

❤

[@adilsonsf]

What you're saying applies directlly to Brazil or any Western country.

[@georgefurman4371]

I believe the future possibility of a change in behalf of our young depends on the capacity of the corporate class to accept their failure to provide opportunity of change. They are the leadership and must know their system is obsolete and it leads to a destructive path . They captured the political power of the state and must stop perpetuating this failed social contract. The road to change is obstructed by their dependence on war and the obsession with wealth accumulation and profit for the sake of profit . If the corporate class don’t accept transitional propositions like coownership of productive infrastructure and capital we are doomed to war and social conflict. Transitional mentality should become the alternative or barbaric decomposition of this system will destroy humanity.

[@micnorton9487]

IT IS possible for American manufacturing to compete with China and india, even though China and India have fewer regulations with regard to environmental issues and worker rights and all sorts of other things... But the truth is many Chinese products are manufactured so cheaply that sure they cost less, the workers are paid less but the products are also pretty shoddy...... Take one example you mentioned, clothing, I'm old enough to remember the time when American jeans were manufactured in Wisconsin and they would last 10 years or more because they were made with blended natural synthetic fabrics... The denim jeans available now from china, are so cheap that you can get them for under $10, but the material is so thin that they will probably not last a year..... And they don't even last two days of hard work....... Also in the United States the cutthroat capitalist system takes so much to repay business loans and the interest that the cost of business in the United States is so much higher,, so,, the oligarchs that used to control the clothing sector and with Union labor,, started manufacturing these things overseas and even though the price is much cheaper, the wholesalers and shippers and etcetera would take their cut so the actual product is not much cheaper than that made in the United states...... Same thing with auto manufacturing, General motors figured that they could make more money off car loans than actually making cars, and we see what happened there....... Flint abandoned, Detroit nearly abandoned, other cities pretty much the same... While it is true that production is much cheaper for example in india, I don't know if you've ever seen the documentary Nero's guests but the subsistence farmers in India are sometimes so desperate, caught between loan repayment and trying to produce a crop, that when they fail, they feel like failures and since India is a very spiritual place with the Hindu philosophy, they just commit sewerslide and figure they'll do better in the next life... Obviously the bankers who held that farmers loan don't really care that he's gone, however the family is quite another matter... So while capitalism is producing cheaper goods for the first world, for the remaining third world, the workers are still caught between desperation and ambition...... One of the problems in the United States is American exceptionalism and people feeling that they have to be making out like bandits or else it's not even worth getting up in the morning..... This is obviously true with the oligarchs and it goes on down the line,, but my point is without the cutthroat capitalist financial structure itself digging the heart out of business, trying to get massive profits for stockholders and loan companies and etcetera, and with that part of the business cycle gone, all of a sudden there's more money to pay for taxes that go for infrastructure and to pay for environmental adjustments to the corporate process and worker benefits and all this other kind of thing... If we were living in an egalitarian society, like on Star trek, everybody would just get up, do the job they do, simply because that's what they do and resources would be extracted, the adjustments made to whatever industrial or commercial process they need to be made to, and it would actually be more efficient to run this society because there isn't the constant drain of activity for counting money...... ON THIS - Many people say that our main problem is that we're not on a gold economy, money is backed by nothing, well I hate to break their bubble but gold is no more valuable than people think it is.... Because it's useful for jewelry and ornamentation and of course for plain and simple greed, gold is highly prized but think about it: you can't really do anything with it..... Not only that, the effort it takes to acquire and refine gold is a wasted effort since it doesn't contribute to any industrial process for things people really need.... The problem with currency at least as produced by the Federal Reserve and all under wall Street's cutthroat capitalist system, is it a currency based on debt...... In other words, some company makes the money, they sell it to the federal reserve, they dump it on the market and getting paid back is where the circulating economy gets its oomph... BUT when you think about it, all it's doing is getting paid back to make a bunch of rich people even richer, sure it lubricates the industrial economy but since the Federal Reserve honchos control Capital initiative, they always stay in control of the financial sector even though they are the LAST people who should be doing it...... The reason why is because somebody who is so greedy that can make money, it doesn't necessarily mean they know how to run an industrial system...... They know how to make money, and they know how to be cheap, and they know how to screw people, but then we get the situation we have now, where we have a society creating people so disconnected they will ignore scientific realities about situations like global warming or whatever, people so disconnected emotionally that they can walk right by starving people in the street and it doesn't bother them, people so perverted that they will buy and sell each other's children for s gratification,, in other words this society is a great place for making money but if you want community and social involvement, well that train has already left the station because get used to it baby, cutthroat capitalism is all about the bottom line... Of course the cutthroat capitalist priest on Wall Street will always say that socialism is impossible but that's because they're not interested in trying... And since these people are the greediest people history has ever seen, and we see what lengths they're willing to go to with America playing nuclear chicken with Russia yet again,, it's very much an open question whether the species Will survive to attempt a socialist economy.... The psychotic rulers of Wall Street have put so many layers of paid mercenaries between them and the people, that it's going to take some extremely shrewd maneuvering by an aware public to get ourselves out from under the cutthroat capitalist dictators.....

[@discplayersports]

What if the workers for any of those corporations were unionized?

[@MrDXRamirez]

I thought he was going to say instead of, “ We want a Worker Coop sector of the economy...” to what I think is a more immediate reason, “ We don’t want the factories to shut down in our town when the corporations decide to leave town.”...and you know they will, they have, they all moved their production to Asia and China left the American working class jobless with a million homeless and the British working class without any Coops they want(ed) and 500,000 homeless souls. What a difference a worker’s government would make...a society that battles all forms of social exploitation and inequality where it counts; the workplace.

[@OutsidethePot]

I want to start a co op. I need a building, equipment. I have the idea and it’s proven to be a good selling product and there’s room to innovate. I’m going to retire and I could take the amount that I can earn till I fully retire. But where to start.

[@lukemedeiros1486]

Are there similarities between worker co-ops and unions? I’m wondering because I’m skeptical if there are similarities. From my point of view, what started off as a good way for workers to unite to negotiate better wages and benefits with the owners of the company has become a racket in and of itself. Union dues are abused in some circumstances and some Union leaders’ net worths have increased while wages for workers stay stagnate or haven’t increased substantially at all.

[@kennyyap9745]

That's is call Corruption of Congress Politicians....

[@jillfryer6699]

Good stuff. Where'd we be without the Entrepreneurs? The bums between those that do the Building jobs and the ones that pay for the road works you need, your Government. And who eased those bums into this comfy seat in between the money and the job? Not the road builders. Why would they? The govt which resembles the In between Takers in so many particulars? Maybe, when you put it like that.

[@glendon1973]

What about the human being as hierarchal animal. How does worker co-op factor this in?

[@keycuz]

What is a hierarchical animal?

[@jgalt308]

@@keycuz humans, gorillas, chimps, horses, wolves, dogs, elephants, buffalo, cattle, etc, etc, etc.

[@jgalt308]

They pretend it doesn't exist.

[@keycuz]

Are you suggesting that humans have the same social order as beasts?

[@keycuz]

They pretend Joe Biden is an example of dominance hierarchies.

[@jjcustard6378]

This economic model is what the British coal industry was based on, they refused to invest in technology and efficiency for fear of having to make people redundant, some mines were still digging coal out with picks in the late 60s, this resulted in us not being able to compete in the global market, and any attempt in trying to modernise our coal industry just resulted in mass strikes, that is until Thatcher came along

[@OPTHolisticServices]

💗🍃🙏...#directdemocracy#smartcities

[@normalizedaudio2481]

How about that new spending bill? Italian Coop builds the roads.

[@FinnWalTD]

why are private corporations opposed only to private cooperatives, but not, for example, to public corporations?

[@Notarys]

Great idea! Doc, my understanding is that huawei is a kind of coop. Perhaps this can be explored in a future episode.

[@merovingian688]

It’s purely about maintaining a social structure with one group over the rest. People suffering dying starving going homeless? It’s all worth it to maintain the system. One guy worth $205 billion will get his $56 billion pay package because the system must allow it.

[@SS-fe8oi]

Pay attention the world momentum- Gaza

[@Ace1000ks19751982]

There is a reason why the US can't build enough munitions and other ordinances. It is because FOR PROFIT corporations have no incentive to produce anything at scale to bring down the cost. In fact, this would work against their interests. Their motive is to produce less and charge the highest price possible, because it is more profitable to do so. This is at the expense of the tax payer.

[@authenticallysuperficial9874]

You're kidding, right? To maximize [revenue - cost] there is no reason to decrease [cost]?

[@Ace1000ks19751982]

@@authenticallysuperficial9874 wat troll?

[@timmy-wj2hc]

​@@authenticallysuperficial9874You don't get it do you? Of course they want to maximize PROFITS, not efficiency.

[@ianchu8232]

@@timmy-wj2hc It's you who's not getting it. Getting cost down will maximize profits. Profit is: revenue - cost. Take a finance class.

[@Ace1000ks19751982]

@@ianchu8232 Selling stuff to the government isn't the free market, it is a monopolistic industry.

[@helengarrett6378]

So, so true! But Is America going to produce things at home? We have offshored most of our manufacturing sector. We could bring manufacturing home again so it could be cooperatized here but if China and India make everything with some other nations sucking up the scraps, how can we really have a vibrant cooperative sector that amounts to more than service businesses and some infrastructure projects? I want companies that weave cloth, produce vaccines and drugs and other goods to produce their stuff cooperatively too. Shoes, clothing and medical supplies could be cooperative enterprises if they were made right here. Why limit ourselves only to government contracts for services and domestic infrastructure? Government bid out contracts for personal protective equipment produced overseas during the Pandemic. We were caught short of them then. We must solve the problems that capitalism causes along with promoting a cooperative sector to compete with it. Cooperatives cannot compete with cheap foreign labor based on exploitation of foreign workers. So I think that first we need laws outlawing or penalizing American capitalist organizations which offshore production so that co-ops have a chance to succeed. What do you say to that idea, Professor Wolff? Can domestic cooperatives compete with capitalist factories in India that make workers labor in unsafe conditions for long hours and little pay? We must make progress here to regulate capitalism in our own country to avoid unfair competition with other countries that have usurped our manufacturing capacity and don't have protective labor laws and satisfactory wages.

[@micnorton9487]

I'm not Professor Wolff obviously but your post is so intriguing I felt I had to answer... IT IS possible for American manufacturing to compete with China and india, China and India have fewer regulations with regard to environmental issues and worker rights and all sorts of other things... And the truth is many Chinese products are manufactured so cheaply that sure they cost less, the workers are paid less but the products are also pretty shoddy...... Take one example you mentioned, clothing, I'm old enough to remember the time when American jeans were manufactured in Wisconsin and they would last 10 years or more because they were made with blended natural synthetic fabrics... The denim jeans available now from china, are so cheap that you can get them for under $10, but the material is so thin that they will probably not last a year..... And they don't even last two days of hard work....... Also in the United States the cutthroat capitalist system takes so much to repay business loans and the interest that the cost of business in the United States is so much higher,, so,, the oligarchs that used to control the clothing sector and with Union labor,, started manufacturing these things overseas and even though the price is much cheaper, the wholesalers and shippers and etcetera would take their cut so the actual product is not much cheaper than that made in the United states...... Same thing with auto manufacturing, General motors figured that they could make more money off car loans than actually making cars, and we see what happened there....... Flint abandoned, Detroit nearly abandoned, other cities pretty much the same... While it is true that production is much cheaper for example in india, I don't know if you've ever seen the documentary Nero's guests but the subsistence farmers in India are sometimes so desperate, caught between loan repayment and trying to produce a crop, that when they fail, they feel like failures and since India is a very spiritual place with the Hindu philosophy, they just commit sewerslide and figure they'll do better in the next life... Obviously the bankers who held that farmers loan don't really care that he's gone, however the family is quite another matter... So while capitalism is producing cheaper goods for the first world, for the remaining third world, the workers are still caught between desperation and ambition...... One of the problems in the United States is American exceptionalism and people feeling that they have to be making out like bandits or else it's not even worth getting up in the morning..... This is obviously true with the oligarchs and it goes on down the line,, but my point is without the cutthroat capitalist financial structure itself digging the heart out of business, trying to get massive profits for stockholders and loan companies and etcetera, and with that part of the business cycle gone, all of a sudden there's more money to pay for taxes that go for infrastructure and to pay for environmental adjustments to the corporate process and worker benefits and all this other kind of thing... If we were living in an egalitarian society, like on Star trek, everybody would just get up, do the job they do, simply because that's what they do and resources would be extracted, the adjustments made to whatever industrial or commercial process they need to be made to, and it would actually be more efficient to run this society because there isn't the constant drain of activity for counting money...... ON THIS - Many people say that our main problem is that we're not on a gold economy, money is backed by nothing, well I hate to break their bubble but gold is no more valuable than people think it is.... Because it's useful for jewelry and ornamentation and of course for plain and simple greed, gold is highly prized but think about it: you can't really do anything with it..... Not only that, the effort it takes to acquire and refine gold is a wasted effort since it doesn't contribute to any industrial process for things people really need.... The problem with currency at least as produced by the Federal Reserve and all under wall Street's cutthroat capitalist system, is it a currency based on debt...... In other words, some company makes the money, they sell it to the federal reserve, they dump it on the market and getting paid back is where the circulating economy gets its oomph... BUT when you think about it, all it's doing is getting paid back to make a bunch of rich people even richer, sure it lubricates the industrial economy but since the Federal Reserve honchos control Capital initiative, they always stay in control of the financial sector even though they are the LAST people who should be doing it...... The reason why is because somebody who is so greedy that can make money, it doesn't necessarily mean they know how to run an industrial system...... They know how to make money, and they know how to be cheap, and they know how to screw people, but then we get the situation we have now, where we have a society creating people so disconnected they will ignore scientific realities about situations like global warming or whatever, people so disconnected emotionally that they can walk right by starving people in the street and it doesn't bother them, people so perverted that they will buy and sell each other's children for s gratification,, in other words this society is a great place for making money but if you want community and social involvement, well that train has already left the station because get used to it baby, cutthroat capitalism is all about the bottom line... Of course the cutthroat capitalist priest on Wall Street will always say that socialism is impossible but that's because they're not interested in trying... And since these people are the greediest people history has ever seen, and we see what lengths they're willing to go to with America playing nuclear chicken with Russia yet again,, it's very much an open question whether the species Will survive to attempt a socialist economy.... The psychotic rulers of Wall Street have put so many layers of paid mercenaries between them and the people, that it's going to take some extremely shrewd maneuvering by an aware public to get ourselves out from under the cutthroat capitalist dictators.....

[@TheTownzFinest]

When do these episodes get uploaded to Spotify? My masters don’t like KZbin.

[@iamericandavinci]

It speaks volumes of a country eager to send billions in military aid to a losing battle, when we have so many desperate, homeless Americans that could have used those dollars just for basic living necessities.

[@MatewanMassacre]

As Mao Zedong once defined it, 'Capitalism,' is 'production for profit.'

[@justinwilliams3483]

The intro theme to this show sounds like Eminem lol

[@MrDXRamirez]

Capitalists are emulated by the working class and held in high esteem by society because the real economic surplus is obscured by the existence of buyers and sellers. Before the Cold War the market demonstrated to people how hard it is to sell billions of goods to make billions more in dollars by positioning buyers and sellers. But after the Cold war, the market has many cartel monopolies and these drive the economy into a ditch. Fewer companies own money the majority use credit capital and cash advances, they were buyers forced to become sellers of their businesses repetitively, and larger capitals buy smaller capitals. This is the end stages of monopoly capitalists; a society of fewer banks in the business of banking, a society with fewer industries in the business of industry, a society with less buyers in the business of buying, and so on, and the reserve capital of banks mandated to have on hand in the event of a crash are actions of withholding money from getting into the hands of other companies for expansion, this is Hoarding. Monopoly capitalism becomes too costly for the planet’s material resources and too high a cost for the working class in a deeper level of material and social deprivation. It’s basically a Decline of Monopoly Capitalism the rationalists are denying to themselves. These are tendencies really inclusive of the last stages of monopoly capitalism, but not of, capitalism itself, for that would entail the working class take on a self-emancipation project not for the dissolution of government but for the dissolution of itself as a working class. Only than will capitalism as a mode of production would cease to exist. People have to cease selling their labor-power to capitalists which is not the same thing as desiring to work, Work but not for Sale, ----for capitalism to disappear from the face of the earth.

[@weizhou22]

老先生，您说的这个是行不通的； 这是开历史的倒车。 唯一的办法是依赖科技发展并真心的拥抱全球化； 用科技发展的结果提升单位生产效率，并在全球范围依赖比较优势进一步提升效率，以此用最少的资源产出最大的结果，分给全人类； 但至于怎么分这个巨大的蛋糕， 社会主义，共产主义，资本主义，帝国主义，不同的国家有不同的分法，没有定论只有支持； 最后等到全球物质都极大丰富，不再有穷人，不再有上不起学的人，那时可能会有新的国家形态和制度产生。 现在一切都是未知； 再多说一句，你们的问题本质就是，在过去拥抱全球化的过程中，富人挣的太多了，但是不愿意分给国内的穷人； 但为了推卸责任，他们联合政客把责任推给其他国家。

[@marcionphilologos5367]

What is characteristic of the capitalist organisation is its INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL RATIONALITY AND FUNCTIONALITY!!!!!!!!!!!!! IN CONTRAST TO A DEMOCRATIC, COOPERATIVE, OR TRADITIONAL CAPITALIST COMPANY (FUNCTIONING IN THE PURE INTEREST OF PRIVATE CAPITAL). SO, CAPITALIST COMPETITION HAS PUSHED HUMAN CIVILISATION TO THE HIGH LEVEL, IN WHICH WE ARE LIVING. SOCIALISM MUST FUNCTION TO IMPROVE CAPITALIST COMPETITION AND DIVIDE EXTREME PRIVATE PROFITS AMONG THE COMMONERS.

[@xephyr417]

Mondragon is too big. We need something like that but smaller.

[@FedUpSista]

Anchor Steam beer

[@garraper]

credit unions .....the way to help your local community ...

[@russellmiller4467]

No only the out numbered will fall

[@garrethoien6666]

At 3:59 you make the false claim as the co op is another " example " this presupposes that they are equivalent "examples". However your first "example " might has well have been from a poorly written sci fiction novel.

[@piku5637]

Social democracy with libertarian socialist characteristics.

[@felicetanka]

Church govt. > business govt. Always.

[@Goofy8907]

You use terms like top down capitalist enterprise Can you address how to ensure worker co-ops won't be hierarchical I think its deeply important you inform people about this with your platform if we want any change Because hierarchical worker co ops alone would only eventually reproduce capitalism since they are essentially hierarchical In the same way China and Russia ultimately reproduced capitalism And in Russia in particular, they actually had some resemblance of non-hierarchical organisation before it was ultimately co opted by authoritarians claiming to want to produce communism with capitalist methods This will alway fail It'd be great if you could use your platform to inform people about this Once people understand the problems of hierarchy they can start to develop better understanding of the system and then better ideas and solutions But furthermore work towards a better end rather than constantly being co opted by hierarchy and reproducing capitalism

[@rogerdorsey7823]

DON'T SPEND MORE THAN YOU TAKE IN DUH@!!

[@MrDXRamirez]

The financial sector is in disarray,---the rescue packages and stimulus bills, are one two punches in the gut for working people. Budget gaps and layoffs caused by the bond market hit companies invested in the bond market and bond sellers finance city-state projects. The bondholders get paid their interest-profit after the debt is or not paid is the theory. In practice, the theory puts the working middle classes on the hook to cover the losses. Cuts in pay, loss of pensions, for remaining employees after 400 to 600 workers are laid off happen in one fell swoop across many industries by employers acting as one organized battalion. Conditions are made desirable for employers to make longer working hours with new innovations. Rescue packages are not aimed at restructuring debt or mortgages. This would be one difference a Labor Party would make against how Republicans and Democrats use ‘rescue packages’ as a fund to withdraw money by the recipient of the package. The productive use of rescue packages depends on whose interest it is used for. Get people to understand these dynamics and complacency will start to become a social movement of non-conformity with the existing state of things...and rightfully so.

[@russellmiller4467]

Protest over high cost of inflation in usa and unfare rent hikes

[@jerometekien2927]

Thats the definition of insanity. Doing the same things and expecting different results!😂

[@jgalt308]

But we stopped doing the same thing and then became insane.

[@johnbotsford6897]

The drawback of democratic decision making is illustrated by the current presidential race.

[@enkilm]

We may not have slaves, but we have the undocumented which we treat the same I.e. contractors,subcontractors and other forms of cheap businesses.

[@Ardoo19]

I think your arguments are half true and half debatable. Association is not causation. Greed, nepotism, cronyism, tribalism and organized religions influence are the sources of most corruptions. You can't blame everything on capitalism. Capitalism has one major advantage over socialism, and that is it's ability to produce, and forces everyone to compete and work. But it has to be controlled so that it can't harm society by influencing politics or exploiting the working class.

[@kennyyap9745]

😮😂😊ALL THE MONEY ALREADY PAID TO CORRUPTED POLITICIAN THROUGH INDUSTRIAL LOBBIES WITH EXPENSIVE PRICES.....& TOP MANAGEMENT/SHAREHOLDERS GETS 50% 100,000 EMPLOYEED GET 50%•••.... THAT'S WHY YOU ARE BROKE CITIZEN WHO PAYS THRU YR NOSE....😅😂😊😂😂

[@gabagool...not_italian...]

another banger

[@fabianadefreitas2365]

Não há salvação para os EUA, infelizmente.

[@chioma3100]

Don't say that. There is always hope. "Everything seems impossible until it's done." Nelson Mandela

[@alexblumin9515]

Dear professor, Richard Wolf. I lived in your dream country 34 years--in USSR. Number one--you propose a mixture of Capitalism with Social Communism in USA. That is impossible probability as those are antagonistic and non compatible systems. Number two---Communism might be built ONLY when ALL members of society will be smart, intelligent, honest, devoted to social cause, non corruptive with basically the same high IQ. However, in Real World--most people are not! Most care ONLY about them-selves --not about society People are different in IQ, education, mentality, social aims, e.t.c. #3 Only Capitalist system can manage those different people by providing economic incentives. #4 Specifically--there are No Coops in America who can handle Million dollars contracts to build anything--not even small house:)) let alone huge infrastructure programs.

[@Wisespy]

😃 😂😅

[@micnorton9487]

@ianchu8232 They did but Stalin's brand of Communism was going way too far... It got them through the Great patriotic War and that's what's important historically,, but everybody in Russia knew of Stalin's excesses and most just went along with it because their lives were fairly comfortable... The Soviet system kept Wall Street at Bay for almost 45 years, and the Russian people especially were tired of the police state of the Soviet system... The rulers of the Soviet system also were aware that calling it a communist country was what was driving the rabid extremists on wall street... The Soviet government obviously knew that creating more and more sophisticated military systems was just driving the world closer and closer to catastrophe, so in 1990 they dropped the Communist label... THE SOVIETS DIDN'T "LOSE" the cold war although Wall Street propaganda was undoubtedly going to crow that from the rooftops into forever... Russia had AND STILL DOES HAVE enough resources to militarily take over the world, of course the Russian oligarchs are not that stupid and Russia's population is not great enough but now with the Chinese alliance, the situation has completely changed.... The BRICS is a done deal and no matter how much Wall Street might want to scream about it and whatever military posturing they might want to do, the only way they're going to crack Russia and keep those resources out of the hands of the Chinese is with nuclear weapons... And there's the rub, Wall Street as we know is totally psychotic because they've been playing nuclear chicken with other nations ever since 1945... Their vast wealth and control over the American industrial scene has given them delusions of grandeur unparalleled in history... And with that vast industrial and military power at their hands, they are the most dangerous people in history even though the Chinese military is probably just as powerful and its economy is definitely superior to the United states...... BUT CHINA IS NOT AN INTERNATIONALLY AGGRESSIVE NATION..... Cucker Tarlson's lamb Gambit to president putin, wouldn't Wall Street be a "kinder gentler superpower" than China, If I was President Putin I would have immediately kicked him out of the Kremlin and told him I was going to release the hounds in 5 minutes lol....... @ProleDaddy Continuing the thought from the other guy,, the Soviet Union tried that, about the armed rebellion in russia..... Most socialists pundits today obviously consider what the Leninist regime did to the czar's family and others in Russia and other places was totally counterproductive to forming a viable socialist state... I understand they did it to prevent any future cliques rallying around the czar or his family,, but we recognize in the civilized world that a proper socialist regime allows free dissent, within reason.... Most socialists regimes that have tried to make it in the modern age have been continuously sabotaged and undermined by cutthroat capitalist intriguers who have nothing better to do with their vast illegally obtained wealth than to recruit backstabbers.... One of the things rarely talked about in any Western academic circles is the constant constructions of conspiracies inside the Soviet Union that may have driven Stalin to his extreme paranoia... After all the Russian revolution started as a conspiratorial splinter faction, Lenin gains the popularity and support among vast numbers of Russians and as they say the rest is history... And no matter how much Western propaganda wants to Crow about it, Stalin's eyes although they were everywhere weren't everywhere at once... Anyway after Stalin died the Communist regime became a little looser, but with the vast resources of Russia still beckoning Wall Street and the city in london, the Soviet regime could never relax.... Most of us know the history with missiles in turkey and West Germany and the Cuban missile crisis and all this other stuff,, so anyway the Soviet Union was never beaten by the United States in the cold war although with wall Street's idiotically zero-sum way of looking at things, that's how they were going to perceive and present it... As Professor Wolff and Scott Ritter and Ray McGovern will tell you,, the fall of the Soviet Union even though it didn't entail a military defeat was disastrous for Russia, because the cutthroat capitalist wizards straight From The Freidman Chicago School ECONOMICALLY RAVAGED Russia all through the 1990s, with newly minted oligarchs who WERE loyal Soviet industrial managers or resource specialists, all of a sudden started drawing up bills of sale for coal fields and industrial factories and blocks of apartment buildings... BASICALLY what the Friedman Chicago School shock Doctrine wizards were doing was turning Russia into the Asian Central America... ANYWAY as we know Vladimir Putin and his groups of loyal oligarchs put a stop to all that, stopping the economic hemorrhaging by buying out some stuff that had been taken over by American or european oligarchs, and confiscating other holdings that were vital to the Russian industrial sectors that the buyers didn't want to get rid of....... Thus the schism forming between Wall Street and Russia: WALL STREETS plan was to get multinational corporate players into Russia to foment local coups and break up the Russian federation...... In other words Wall Street was up to its old games again,, so when President Putin basically by default became the richest man in the world by legally holding trillions of dollars worth of securities related to Russian State resources, he became public enemy number One to Wall Street... ANYWAY it appears the economic system in Russia although still capitalist is adopting some of these socialist firewalls that the Chinese system has.... In other words, capital or Capital interest never rises above national interest or the interests of the honcho's running the nation... In china, the system is still pretty harsh on political and social dissenters, the system is just as brutal in Russia but the American system has some of the same excesses.... I don't subscribe to the black propaganda coming out of Wall Street that President Putin is a dictator,, for one thing Putin doesn't try to exert the same sort of control over the Russian legal system as Donald the dumpster Trump is trying to do in the United States... Thus it is an unfortunate part of the political scene in the United States today, where the Democratic party who used to be politically astute enough to recognize a good old-fashioned pentagram proxy war when they saw one, now are rushing to fund Ukraine and buy all this idiotic black propaganda about Vladimir Putin being a dictator and Russia being a threat to world peace.... Wall Street and the city in London's attack dog NATO wants to put forward based strategic weapons in a part of greater Russia, AIMED AT MOSCOW,, and the Russians are supposed to accept this? In what delusional universe? What it IS is the Democratic party is using Russia as a partisan political ploy against their opponent The Dumpster,, now hooking other MAGA lunatics like Marjorie Taylor Greene into the mix as well, calling her Moscow Marge and all sorts of stupid stuff when Greene couldn't give a fig for Russia or its problems....... All she wants is to turn The Dumpster into an American dictator.... SO - we now have the totally lunatic political scene in America, where The Dumpster has the entire political conscience of the country so far shifted to the right that formerly rational Democrats are calling for a war with Russia, somehow asking us to support LBGTQ and BLM AND NATO TOO, and how the f*** has pro-choice become mixed up with pro-war? It's enough to bring one to despair seeing on social media how Russians support The Dumpster and his maga lunatic party simply because they're not Joe Biden's neoliberal democrats.... Joe Biden is a geriatric rubber stamp for the military industrial complex and wall street, he's a liar everyday and five times on Sunday but at least he's not The Dumpster... The Dumpster claims he has a foolproof plan for Russia - all he has to do is call up President Putin, ORDER him out of Ukraine,, and in one day he can stop the entire thing....... Of course the man is such a lunatic he declared his candidacy comically early just so he could sling accusations of election interference for 4 years, when every lawyer knows that that is a legally idiotic supposition... The Dumpster figures he can offer Russian oligarchs a better deal by selling out China, stopping the BRICS and coming on over to wall street...... The Dumpster of course IS suffering from delusions in every area of his life,, unfortunately he has a cult of lunatics who are sufficiently disgusted with the current system that they will follow a lunatic who promises them foggy notion of making America great again...... What he means is, giving the lunatics a voice, letting lunacy run free, embracing disgusting racism and despicable bigotry and the lust to be able to exercise power over people that are actually smarter than they are...... That's what it's about, letting stupidity reign,, letting bigotry rear its ugly head and believe me, that bigotry has no love for Russia......

[@Ben_ZDrine]

👏👏👏Yeah Carlson's interview: he wasn't able to contain his smarmy smugness but President Putin sure smacked it out of him with that comment about Carlson wanting to join the CIA back in the day lol. Aside from that the conversation was splendid on Putin's part, not so much Carlson's because he just couldn't contain his essential shallowness. Also to steer the conversation towards his heritage foundation handlers subject, if Russia would abandon the BRICS and as you say, come on over to Wall Street. What's extraordinary is that Democrats in the United States are buying their DNC propaganda, that Trump is somehow cozying up to Vladimir Putin and Russia, using it to their propaganda advantage along with the idiotic DNC 2016 propaganda about so-called Russian election interference. Unusual story that - seeing as how the DNC had the election in the bag with the favorite Bernie Sanders, until they switched Hillary Clinton and formed enemies that are not going to trust the DNC in their lifetime.

[@micnorton9487]

​@@Ben_ZDrineSad thing about THAT is,, even though Bernie is very liberal on American domestic issues, he's still sort of a hawk internationally...... He has no love for Russia, is a steadfast supporter of israel, and as far as we know is all for Taiwanese independence.......

[@Ben_ZDrine]

​@@micnorton9487Oh - well, I was coming to that. Bernie's supporters, though, are more progressive than Bernie himself so, he'd have a headstart out of the gate.

[@micnorton9487]

@@Ben_ZDrine Maybe but Bernie Sanders has been pushing the Russia - gate bullcrap the same way the Dems are so no matter how progressive Bernie's supporters are, Bernie himself is still a major supporter of the American empire....

[@ianchu8232]

Oh people have tried that. It's called Soviet Union.

[@Support_Ad_Blocker]

🙄

[@geraldmantel4955]

Capitalism ---- ruined my day.

[@williambishop8101]

Week.. Month... Year.... Decade..... Century....... Millennium.........

[@kaceykelly7222]

Prof Wolff would be the ideal "financial consultant" to our government, like a second VP, who tells the taxpayers what is really happening ... and how to do better!